Kathryn Rae Yowell-Baker

Kathryn Rae Yowell Baker was born on June 24th, 1927, in Cromwell, OK, to Ray and Clotile Yowell. She passed away peacefully in her sleep on the morning of September 28th, 2020. She was 93.Katie was the first of three children. Her family moved to the towns of Shawnee and Tecumseh before settling in Oklahoma City. During her senior year at Classen High School, she was editor of the school newspaper, The New Classen Life. She graduated with the Class of 1945, then attended college at Oklahoma City University, pledging the Gamma Phi Beta sorority. As in high school, Katie worked for the campus newspaper, and became editor of the yearbook, Keshena. Kathryn Rae Yowell graduated from OCU magna cum laude in 1949.After graduation, Katie taught high school English for two years before taking a job at the central office of the Oklahoma Education Association to manage and publish their monthly magazine. She began attending the Pilgrim Congregational Church, where she met William H. Baker in the young adults' group. Bill and Katie were married in 1956, and had their first child, William Allen, in 1958. Kathryn Suzanne was born two years later, in 1960. Katie would be a stay-at-home mom for eight years.In 1965 the Baker family moved from Oklahoma City to Long Beach, MS, when Bill was transferred to the Mississippi Test Facility (now NASA's Stennis Space Center) to work on the Apollo Program. In 1966, the Superintendent of the Long Beach Public Schools recruited Katie to fill in for a short time, "until we can hire some more teachers." For the next 25 years she taught English and sponsored both the school newspaper and the yearbook, first in the Junior High, and then in the High School. Her newspaper and yearbook staffs won multiple state and national honors for excellence in journalism. Katie retired from teaching in 1992.With their children "grown and flown," Bill and Katie moved back to Oklahoma City, resumed life and playing Bridge with the same friends from their young adults' group at Pilgrim Church. None of them were young any more, yet their friendships were fresh. They filled many hours playing bridge, laughing and entertaining each other with stories of their children, their travels, and their times together. It was a good hand to play for as long as they could.Kathryn Yowell Baker was preceded in death by her mother, Clotile; father, Ray; brother, Earl Yowell; sister, Suzanne Y. Schneider; and beloved cousins, Joe Yowell and Jim Lyon. She is survived by Bill, her husband of 64 years; son, Allen Baker and daughter-in-law Janet Baker; daughter, Suzie Kempf and son-in-law Mike Kempf; three grandchildren—Sam, Madeline, and Grace Kempf; niece, Rev. Linda Baggett and her husband Rev. Trent Baggett; nephew, Dan Baker and his wife Nancy Baker; cousin, Clifford Lyon and his wife Karen Lyon; cousin, Roseann Yowell, and more "little body" cousins than we have space to list. Katie also leaves a living legacy of thousands of bright young minds who were lovingly trained under her tutelage and discipline over the course of her lifetime.Shortly after her memory began to fade, Katie wrote, "In summing up my life, God has been so good to me. All the things I thought would make me unhappy always turned out to be good."Katie will be interred at the Chapel Hill Memorial Gardens at 8701 NW Expressway, Oklahoma City, OK, 73162. There will be a short graveside ceremony at 10:00 am, Saturday October 3rd, 2020. In lieu of flowers, her family respectfully requests donations in her name to The Alzheimer's Research Foundation, www.alzheimersresearchfoundation.com/make-a-donation/.